“Even Pres. Oaks”: BLM, women, immigrants, maybe LGBTQ one day?
(Screengrab from BYUtv) Oct. 27, 2020, image from Salt Lake Tribune
Today’s First Presidency: a surgeon, a teacher, and a lawyer in their professional lives. Yet the lawyer, Pres. Dallin H. Oaks, sometimes surprises me with his pronouncements:
“Of course Black lives matter. That is an eternal truth all reasonable people should support” (BYU devotional, Oct. 27, 2020).
“We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?” (April 2014 general conference).
Less than two weeks after the First Presidency was formed in Jan. 2018, they issued their first public statement, the topic of which was immigration, in support of DREAMERS (Newsroom, Jan. 26, 2018).
While each of these statements invites criticism, and plenty of it (possibly too little, too late, too shallow, too everything), each indicates at least an openness to the issues and maybe a baby step forward.
Maybe more openness to LGBTQ issues one day? I never know how God is working with imperfect servants, including me.
-Marci